Local road and state highway improvements

This page relates to the 2024-27 National Land Transport Programme.

Introduction

This page sets out requirements of the activity classes for road improvements and provides links to work category definitions and requirements, relevant policies and profiling requirements.

There are two activity classes:

Local road improvements – applies to approved organisations for investment to improve the capacity and levels of service of the local road network, and renewal of end of life bridges and structures.
State highway improvements – applies to NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) (for its own activities) for investment to improve the capacity and the levels of service of the state highway network and renewal of end of life bridges and structures.

Government expectations

We (NZTA as investor) expect that investments from the local road and state highway improvements activity classes will contribute to results sought by the government.

Government expectations by activity class (webpage yet to come)

Qualifying for National Land Transport Programme consideration

Any public road (that is, any road that is available to the public on a full-time basis) improvement activity described in the work categories in this section may qualify for consideration for inclusion in the National Land Transport Programme (NLTP) and subsequent funding approval.

Any proposed activity is eligible by meeting the definition of the local road improvements or state highway improvements activity class in the Government Policy Statement on land transport (GPS) and the appropriate work category definition in this knowledge base.

All regionally delivered road improvement activities proposed for inclusion in the NLTP must be included in a regional land transport plan (RLTP).

Approved organisations and NZTA (for its own activities) must comply with the NZTA Procurement manual and procurement rules, as well as any relevant standards and guidelines as listed in the Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency standards and guidelines register for land transport.

Procurement manual

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency standards and guidelines register for land transport

Road improvements activities described in the following work categories are eligible for inclusion in these activity classes.

Road improvements work categories

State highway and/or local road improvements activity classes contain the following work categories (most of which are common to both):

Funding assistance for local road improvement projects that benefit state highways

Local road improvement projects may, at our (NZTA as investor) discretion, be partly or fully funded as effective state highway improvement projects from the local road improvements or state highway improvements activity classes.

The following criteria apply:

Greater state highway benefits can be purchased per dollar when compared with upgrading the state highway.
We and the local authority have agreed that the project is the best investment option.
We and the local authority have agreed on attribution of benefits and sharing of construction costs.
The project is unlikely to proceed if left to the local authority (that is, if it was funded at the normal funding assistance rate).

Normal or enhanced funding assistance rates, as the case may be, shall apply to each party’s share of the cost of improvements. Arrangements for on-going maintenance may differ on a case-by-case basis.

Other funding components

In some cases, a project may have a third party or Crown funding component and a National Land Transport Fund (NLTF) component, but these projects are still required to meet all the NLTP inclusion requirements and are subject to profiling and prioritisation under the NZTA Investment Prioritisation Method for the 2024-27 NLTF and for investment decision making.

The GPS will for each NLTP period set out the government’s expectations for the role of NZTA in providing the Minister of Transport advice on priorities for Crown funding consideration that support delivery of the relevant GPS priorities.

For further details that apply to investment decision-making see our investment policies.

2024–27 NLTP principles and policies

Developing road improvement activities

For information on developing road improvement activities, see the requirements for transport investments.

Quick links - transport investment requirements (webpage yet to come)

For requirements of low-cost, low-risk roading improvements, see work category 341.

Work category 341: low-cost, low-risk improvements (webpage yet to come)

Profiling and prioritising road improvement activities

Road improvement activities proposed for funding from the NLTF are profiled and prioritised under the NZTA Investment Prioritisation Method for the 2024-27 NLTP.

Updated draft Investment Prioritisation Method 2024-27

2024-27 NLTP Investment Prioritisation Method (webpage yet to come)

See work category 341 for requirements on low-cost, low-risk improvement programmes.